Editorial

Time for a meeting

During the municipal election campaign — which already seems
like it took place in another economic era — Mayor Ken Melamed echoed a
position put forward earlier by Tourism Whistler, namely that Whistler is
better positioned than a lot of other resorts to face what was then referred to
as a slowing economy.

It’s called other things now. Even the prime minister and
finance minister have used the word “recession.” The argument now is over how
long the recession will go on and how deep it will be.

Resorts probably aren’t the best business to be in during a
recession, given that their whole economy is largely based on discretionary
spending. Being a well-positioned resort in a recession may be like being the
most distinguished sheep amongst a pack of wolves.

But if I might take a stab at what the mayor, and others, were
referring to: it’s the Olympics; the $1 billion worth of infrastructure
improvements in and around Whistler that will be completed prior to the
Olympics (and the money spent locally to build those various pieces of
infrastructure); it’s Whistler’s established reputation as a destination resort
(as opposed to a wannabe destination resort); and it’s how the Olympics should
increase the global awareness of Whistler.

As well, the U.S. exchange rate is more favourable to American
visitors than it was at this time a year ago and, at least for the moment, oil
and gasoline prices are conducive to travel.

That doesn’t mean all is well. While the economic situation has
been dire in the United States and central Canada for many weeks, we are
finally starting to see the impacts regionally and locally. The layoffs at
Whistler-Blackcomb and parent company Intrawest are just one example. Some
hotels in Whistler have also had to lay off staff — immediately prior to the
start of the ski season.

And the next few years’ municipal budgets were already going to
be difficult to balance without further tax increases. But with municipal
revenue more dependent on hotel occupancy levels than ever before, it’s going
to be especially challenging.

The economic difficulties are shared by many communities, but
the timing and the circumstances make the situation unique to Whistler. It
calls for a re-examination of some fundamental assumptions Whistler makes —
about municipal spending, about Whistler 2020, about the budgets and
expectations of visitors, about corporate support for Whistler, perhaps even
about Whistler’s belief that it is special.

It also requires a collective effort, as opposed to individuals
pursuing their own interests. At the very least, we need a collective
understanding of where Whistler is and what it needs to do to get through the
next couple of years.

The community has a history of stepping up when needed. During
the 1982 recession municipal employees took a 2.5 per cent pay cut and were
asked to work three
days for free. (Of
course, the municipality’s capital budget in 1982 was only $650,000.) In that
same era, with the hockey rink/conference centre sitting unfinished, some
Whistler trades people volunteered to work on it themselves — they weren’t
working anyway and they’d grown tired of all the whining.

Rallying the Whistler community to a collective cause is much
more difficult today than it was in 1982, as the situation with Olympic accommodation
and the owners of strata-titled hotel rooms has shown. But an attempt should be
made. Bring the new council together — before they’ve had their January retreat
— with the new chamber board, the Tourism Whistler board, senior managers from
Whistler-Blackcomb and all the rest of the community for a respectful,
informative discussion. Tourism Whistler could provide some information, the
municipality’s finance department could put up some numbers, Whistler-Blackcomb
managers might be able to shed some light on their parent companies, and
perhaps someone from outside of Whistler, like Peter Yesawich,
could provide a perspective on the economy and North
American tourism.

The meeting does not need to involve VANOC, an organization
that will exist for only another 16 months.

Such a meeting wouldn’t solve all of Whistler’s problems — it
might not solve any of them. But it would help everyone understand how well
Whistler is positioned. And perhaps through this discussion we’d find ways to
better position Whistler.